


Slipping to Horizontal

by femme4jack



Series: The Tales of Recline the Berthformer [2]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Other, Plug and Play
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-17
Updated: 2012-04-17
Packaged: 2017-11-03 20:19:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/385520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/femme4jack/pseuds/femme4jack
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prowl had never given much thought to berths, or recharge for that matter.  The former was an unneeded luxury that took up valuable mechanometers of space.  The latter was a necessity to be tolerated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Slipping to Horizontal

**Author's Note:**

> **Content:** Mildly cracky, OC, mild field and tactile intimacy, alludes to PnP, enforced recharge by medical orders. 
> 
> Written for speedwriting Prompt 1 April 14: Make the unsexy sexy. Choose an aspect of TFs that you don't think of as particularly sexy - not something you actively dislike, but something that you haven't given much thought to before. Now, write it like it's the hottest thing your character(s) can imagine. _While what happens in bed can be sexy, I've never found beds to be particularly sexy in and of themselves, even the ones meant to be so. Prowl most certainly has never considered berths to be sexy before now._
> 
> I wrote a bunch of silly ["twitfics"](http://femme4jack.livejournal.com/141144.html) (stories of 140 characters or less) this weekend about "Recline the Berthformer", and decided he needed his own story. My goal is to write an "episode" for each speedwriting prompt this week to overcome my block. Cheer me on!

Prowl had never given much thought to berths, or recharge for that matter. The former was an unneeded luxury that took up valuable mechanometers of space. The latter was a necessity to be tolerated. For Prowl, recharging was something to be done only when his systems insisted upon it and the error messages could no longer be dismissed without serious systems failures, and then only for as long as was needed to defragment and resume his work at an acceptable processing capacity.

He rarely recharged in a berth. He did not, for one, care to lie on his front, and most berths were not designed with his sensor panels in mind. In addition, there was truly no benefit to being in a horizontal position for recharge over a vertical one. He preferred his office chair, or, when chronic shortage required a far deeper level of shut down, one of the stasis pods in Medical.

Prowl had argued against the enlistment of the mech whose office he now found himself in. Berthformers, in Prowl's opinion, were a throwback to the era of privileged towerlings, for whom having sparked dwellings, and even, for the wealthiest, furnishings, was a sign of prestige. While Prowl would never advocate the extermination of useless frame classes as Megatron had, he could, privately, understand the logic of the warlord's position on those whose only function was luxury and consumption of needed resources. While Prowl did not wish to see them smelted any more than other sparked beings, he would not have objected to subsidized reformats, or at least a ban on the building of future generations.

Yet, Optimus Prime had welcomed Recline's enlistment with the warmth and open arms he was known for, giving Prowl that patented look of extreme disappointment when his lieutenant made his arguments regarding the shortage of energon and the superfluous nature of the berthformer's function. It was not as though the berthformer had any practical skills that could be used in the army! Truly, he was just taking up space and energon.

As far as Prowl was concerned, Recline should have been sent to a neutral refugee settlement to await emigration to one of the safer colony worlds, leaving Cybertron for those suited to war. The berthformer most certainly should not have been provided with quarters as well as a full office to which he had a steady stream of what he termed "patients".

And now Prowl, by the order of their pit-spawned glitch of a CMO, was one of those patients, and would not be leaving this particular office until he had spent an entire rest cycle in a horizontal position on the berthformer (who was currently sitting in a relaxed pose on the chair across from Prowl's own, explaining the benefits of magnesium ascorbate-laced energon and the fascinating sabbatical he took on Somulus 4 studying organic dreaming practices with the shamans there).

"Prowl," Recline's soft, gentle tone interrupted his musings (though not the multiple other subroutines Prowl was running on the strategic analysis he had downloaded to his own processors to work on through this otherwise wasted shift). "I know you don't wish to be here. However, I am sure you understand my orders. Obviously I will not force you to lie down and put your battle computer on standby, but I am required to report to Ratchet the results of this session, and he will simply order you here for another rest cycle."

"Actually," Prowl corrected flatly, "he is more likely to take me off duty altogether until he gets his way."

"So, it would seem to be in your best interest to enjoy what I have to offer. I promise you will find yourself more efficient in the coming cycles."

"In the unlikely event your are correct, I will certainly use that increased efficiency to make up for the joors I am losing here."

Recline smiled, taking no offense. "In which case you will not have lost any time at all," he said brightly, standing and moving his chair aside, along with the carafe of energon whose alleged additive-properties Prowl had reason to find extremely doubtful (especially considering they were reportedly tinctures that had "imprinted" the energy of minerals and herbs indigenous only to worlds with organic life).

"Your calculations are flawed," Prowl felt compelled to add. "While I might be making up the time I have lost this cycle, I will lose valuable work time while I am making this time up."

Recline cocked his helm, looking down at Prowl with a gently amused expression. "Then I hope that you will, in the end, find this time worth that loss," he said as he initiated his transformation sequence. 

+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+

Prowl had never given much thought to berths, or recharge for that matter. The former was an unneeded luxury that took up valuable mechanometers of space. The latter was a necessity to be tolerated. 

He could not have predicted his response to observing Recline transform to his berthform for the first time, no matter how much data his battle computer had been provided on the topic. _Transform_ seemed a misnomer for the process. Sensuously melted was more fitting. Where a tall, lightly armored mech had stood, there was now a berth, though again, using that utilitarian glyph to describe what was now before him was almost enough to make Prowl's logic center ping him with an error. 

Recline in his berth mode could only be described as a work of art (a topic Prowl normally, like berthformers, dismissed as superfluous). The charging platform itself was sensuously angled and curved in a pattern Prowl thought he should recognize. The recharge ports lining the platform's surface were surrounded by fractal designs. The seemingly random markings on Recline's mech form were now revealed to be swirling glyphs etched in the ancient calligraphic style, as well as the writing of at least a dozen other species, covering the sides and legs of the berth.

Poems, invocations, and blessings, Prowl quickly realized, all invoking peace, rest, and renewal, as well as the enlightenment some organics believed came from their random sleep-induced neural activity. However, he could not bring himself to fault the overall effect. For the first time he truly took stock of Recline's office, noting the details he had duly shunted to his secondary processors when he had reported there as ordered. In the soft, dim light, Recline's silver finish reflected the swirl of chromatonites on the walls and ceiling, suggestive of distant nebulae and star nurseries. A miniature crystal garden was growing in one corner of the room, surrounded by a mercury fountain adding it's silvery melody to the ambiance. Reflections from both crystals and mercury danced and shimmered on the walls and on Recline's plating. 

"Would you like to lie down, Prowl?" Recline asked, and for the first time Prowl noted just how smooth and warm the mech's tone was. 

"I suppose I should get this over with," Prowl said, though with far less conviction than before. He took a step closer and noted two deep clefts in the surface curvature of Recline's charging platform, right where Prowl's sensor panels would be. A quick scan revealed that the curvature of the rest of the platform was the perfect shape to match Prowl's dorsal surface. 

Prowl briefly hesitated before sitting on the recharge platform, which rose to just the correct height for him to do so without any strain to his hydraulics or joints. This close, he could feel Recline's field, adjusting and meshing with his own. It was intimate without being intrusive, the resonance obviously brought into harmony with his to give the impression of being welcomed by something that was a part of himself. 

"Please let me know if I need to make any adjustments to my shape or field harmonics, Prowl," Recline practically purred as Prowl matched the angles and curves to the perfectly shaped platform, sinking his sensor panels into the softly enveloping clefts that felt as though they were filled with a stiff, warm gel below their mesh surface. He could feel Recline's surface making minor adjustments, adding support to his joints, filling in his armor gaps, and gently squeezing around his panels in a manner that was pleasant rather than irritating. Enveloped as they were, there was little point of continuing to scan with them, but rather than switch off the feed entirely, he opted to enjoy the gentle pressure and heat against them.

Prowl could feel the spin of Recline's spark, just below his own, matching speeds even as his field became more thoroughly enmeshed by the berthformer's. Slowly, the spin of both sparks began to slow, though it was not clear whether Recline's was following Prowl's own, or actively inducing the change. 

The whole effect was exquisite, unlike anything Prowl had ever felt before.

He heard Recline's charging ports spiraling open invitingly, as well as the rustle of his cables emerging. "Prowl, are you comfortable?" he asked with a soft, musical lilt.

"It is... acceptable," Prowl offered, his systems heating several degrees in anticipation of plugging in and being plugged in turn. He had not planned on doing so, yet now could not quite recall why he should object.

"Do you wish to overload before I initiate your recharge cycle?" Recline asked softly.

Prowl considered for a moment. Like recharge itself, overloads were necessary, and something he typically dealt with as efficiently as possible.

Nothing about Recline was efficient, and rather than the annoyance that should cause him, Prowl felt his spark stutter for a moment in anticipation of what that might be like.

"I will leave that up to your professional discretion," Prowl finally said, his own ports opening in invitation.

After all, he thought decisively, if he had to endure this waste of his time, he might as well experience the full effects.


End file.
